Medicine & Math

ER: Crisis of ConscienceSomeone needs to provide me with access to detailed spoilers for this show ASAP, because I SUCK at predicting things and it's making me feel stupid.

"Gates and Neela are definitely not going to work out. . .that ship has sailed sunk."

Then this week's episode opens, and I'm reduced to squawking "What?! Huh? What is this? Gates and Neela are sleeping together? Since when? Why am I incapable of figuring out what's going on with this couple?"

I'm actually not sure how I feel about this new development. I had kind of resigned myself to the fact that they were over. Instead they appear back to their "I kind of like you but mostly I don't like to sleep alone and you're cute" relationship, which isn't a good recipe, no matter how cute it is that he calls her Mayday. (Aw, it's almost like Danny & Lindsay' s "Montana." Except with less emotional attachment.)

I am delighted to see that Sarah is still around. I like that her anger has faded, and though she clearly would be happier if Neela weren't there, she seems to have resigned herself to the fact that Tony likes her. And Sarah loves Tony, and doesn't want to risk being separated from him. Her earnest "I can do all the shopping, cooking and cleaning" is proof enough that she's still anxious about whether he'll let her stay with him permanently . That amount of work will quickly burn out a middle schooler, though, so I hope he doesn't let her try to do it all for too long. See if she's still cooking candlelight dinners two months down the road! Okay, moving on to cases.

Ahh, the eternal debate over whether one should be allowed to sell one's kidneys. I'm actually glad they brought it up, because they discussed this exact thing in an episode of Law & Order: SVU. Said episode, whatever it's called, is one of my all-time favorites and every time I see it air in reruns I have to resist the urge to go write a blog post about my opinion on this debate. I shall resist no more! In this particular scenario, it boils down to "Dubenko is awesome and I can't stand Neela." Let me elaborate.

I can't recall the last time I really hated Neela, but I sure had a hard time with her this episode. Her self-righteous outrage was very unsettling. Look, first of all, you SHOULD be able to sell your kidneys. A flaw in the debate about being able to sell one's eggs/sperm/plasma is that those things are replenishable, while you can only lose one kidney, and that's it. Still, I don't see why it should matter. If one's body can be used to help another, and especially if you can help yourself in the process, that's bonus points all around. And even if it remains illegal, I don't see how the question of ethics comes into it. It seems like this is the kind of thing where surgeons would just look the other way and pretend not to know, the way police rarely crack down on underage drinking.

"What about the people who can't afford it?" is one of Neela's main questions. This makes me want to hit my head against a wall. Here's an idea for the long term - instead of being able to sell it to the highest bidder, all sold kidneys are regulated by the national transplant committee or whatever it is. Surely they could find some kind of sponsor which would allow them to provide monetary compensation for the donor while still allocating the organs to recipients free of charge.

In the short term, with the way things are, the question is the same as always. In case you haven't noticed, wealthy people already get better care. They have better insurance, can afford to pay for better hospitals and more advanced treatment methods. Everything comes at a price; that's how our health care system works. Not ever having had to pay for my own medical care, I am still fine with that and would rather have lower taxes than a national health care system. I'll decide when I'm sick enough to need medical care; until then I see no point to paying for what I don't use. But that's a digression. It makes me want to strangle Neela that she would rather let a kidney go to waste than allow someone to be paid for it. KIDNEYS SAVE LIVES. THEY ARE COMPARATIVELY RARE. When one is procured, you take it and you transplant it, no questions asked. For example, I generally like horses more than people, but if somebody found that a steady diet of horse meat cures cancer, I'd advocate to keep the slaughterhouses open. Hm. I always use animals in my analogies, don't I?

So, that minor rage aside...on to the other crisis of conscience of the night! The woman who committed suicide in some sort of clever and trixy way that involved consuming a substance that left no trace and made it look like her liver simply failed on its own. Her rationale was that she'd been drifting away from her family and racked up $80k worth of gambling debt until they'd lost everything, so all that was left was the life insurance policy. I was cheering on Gates' attempt to quietly sweep that fact under the rug so that at least her sons wouldn't be left empty-handed on the streets. I cheered Luka's eventual decision to go along with this plan. Then I found we'd all been duped, as the evil elder son had masterminded the whole suicide. Well, that's just sick. It's one thing if a desperate and deluded woman kills herself and you try to salvage something in the wake of that destruction...it's another to premeditate someone else's death. We call that kind of thing murder, and it's v.v. bad.

And the cheerleader case! Eeh gads! Since when are cheerleaders vicious and vindictive towards their own teammates? Administering beatdowns to newbies...total WTF. My school's cheerleaders all appeared to be fairly sweet and unassuming people, mostly freshmen and sophomores. The backstabbing bitches were on the danceline and the cool/popular/respected girls were actually out there playing the sports. At least, as far as I observed.

Other thoughts-Abby and Luka are being silly about this engagement/wedding business. To be honest, I kind of expected them to have just gone down the courthouse and be married by the time this episode rolled around. I thought she just wanted to make it official...I didn't know she needed or wanted a big public ceremony. -Thinking about Crenshaw & Jane's kinky sex life makes my brain want to jump out of my skull and run away. It's better than having to see it, but only marginally. Surely there's a better way to feature Sara Gilbert on this show?-So...Ben's gone entirely now. Huh. That was odd and abrupt. -Sam continues to be a delightful example of why pregnant teenagers should not attempt to keep & raise their babies. Also, is it wrong if I kind of want to slap Alex for making his mother cry?-Andy Dick should not be given any more acting jobs. Ever. He's the most annoying man in the world. He had a good stint as Matthew on News Radio; everywhere else (especially real life) he's just too weird. I skipped every scene with him in it.-I don't even feel like contemplating the Gates/Neela/Ray love triangle at this point. I've given up. I don't know what I want anymore, aside from the fact that I can't stand Ray.-Next week: the semi-annual blizzard! Yay! See why it's fun to set shows in places that have snow?

Grey's Anatomy: Ferry Disaster, part 2Um. Where do I even start? The good parts were comparatively better than the good parts of last episode, but the as a whole it didn't seem as good as part 1, so I'm...conflicted on whether to make a happy face or a sad face. Guess we better divide by categories.

The GoodDerek ruled this episode. Yes, he did. He stole the show and I had to watch every one of his scenes about 3 times. First of all crouching down by the little girl and trying to get her to tell him about Meredith. It induced something close to cooing. I have never seen him look quite so dreamy as he did right there. I LOVED the look on his face when Silent Girl slowly points out into the open ocean. Tdawning comprehension turning to disbelief and horror. The fact that he was the one who pulled her out of the water, even if we didn't get to see it. The desperate and frenzied attempts to revive Meredith in the ambulance, and then at the hospital. The snarl at the paramedic, "She's not a Jane Doe! She's Meredith Grey!" He spent the entire second half of the episode fighting back tears (with varying amounts of success, mostly failing).

And that's why I love him. Every so often I have to remind myself that there is a reason Dr. Shepherd beats Dr. Burke on all the polls, and it's because while that cool and calm mystique of Burke's is intriguing and quite attractive, sometimes I miss the emotional guy who wears his heart on his sleeve. Slumped in the hallway after being kicked out of her room, head hanging in despair...truly wrenching. I saw that and despite everything in me railing against it, my heart went out to him, because he loves her. She's everything, and the thought of being without her is incomprehensible, because he can't function without her. I don't even like Meredith, and I almost started crying.

And if I could see it, Addison saw it too. She was moved. Enough to beg Meredith (out loud) to fight, to pull through. This is one of those nice divorce cases, where the people continue to care about each other afterwards, even when they're no longer romantically linked. She's perfectly well aware of how much Meredith means to him; this is a tragedy she wouldn't wish that on anyone. Although I certainly would, if it got Addison away from all those nasty men she sleeps with and back with her perfect, dreamy husband.

You realize that I have to send my mind wandering off into AU daydreams in which Addison is the one he's struggling to bring back to life and crying over. Because I want him to still look at her the way he looks at Meredith. And in order for that to work, I want Meredith off with Dreamy Finn and not pining over Derek. Mmm, nice daydreams. *shakes head rapidly* Those will have to wait until I finish this.

In non-Derek related things, I liked Cristina not caring about anything except the location of Meredith, and also Alex & George's search through the morgue. Grudgingly, I'll admit that Alex had a good idea, taking polaroids of the victims. That was cool. But when the man with the pregnant wife found out she was among the dead...I was tearing up. That montage of all the weeping families in the waiting room made me start crying for real.

The BadMark and Derek kind of make up. Or whatever it means when the former sits next to him and squeezes his arm in comfort, and the latter sort of nods in vaguely grateful acknowledgement. To which I said, boo. I don't want them to be friends. I like the way they square off. I need someone around here to keep hating Sloan...I also want Sloan gone entirely. Why is he still on the show? All right, YES, I kind of wanted that moment to be between Derek and Addison. Not in any romantic context, just proving that she can still be supportive. Sigh.

Izzie. Dear God, Izzie and her stupid spazzing. Hated that whole segment with the drill, hated her hyperactive "Yippee I'm so proud of myself!" babbling afterwards, and hated her long and made-me-roll-my-eyes "I Believe" speech. The only awesome part was when she continued to insult George's mistake of a marriage, and even that was weird because she was so earnest about it. I actually had to watch it twice to confirm that she called it a mistake, because she was practically glowing when she said it. Whatever. Izzie hates Callie. Yay!

George ruined what could have been a very powerful moment in the OR starting with "Callie O'Malley, I can't kiss you right now, but..." As soon as he walked in both she and I became uncomfortable, on edge. You could almost see her shoulders hunch, hoping against hope that he wasn't going to pull any more of that relationship crap out while she was the middle of surgery. Both she and I visibly relaxed when he did nothing of the sort, and almost walked out quietly...and then he turned around and spouted off. *headdesk*

This 3-parter is going to end with Addison and Alex in bed together, isn't it? I'm getting that feeling, given the way they WILL NOT DROP the eyesex -- no, wait, I'm not going to use that term because I reserve it for Grissom & Sara, where it's a good thing, and I'm not tarnishing it by connecting it to the unholiness of Addison/Alex. Whatever it is, I just want it to stop. Make it go away, it's gross. I feel like I've been issuing this plea after every single episode this season, but will you please just let Addison be a smart, strong and accomplished doctor without making her fall for every man that comes along? Remember Addison in the Elevator? Bring that woman front and center and keep her there.

The OddWhen the final spoilers hit, some of the crazier, more immature, hyperactive fans said "Hey, Shonda said Denny won't be a flashback or a dream...here's a weird thought, what if Meredith 'dies' and she ends up seeing Denny??" It was the kind of chatter that usually you just roll your eyes at and quietly go "yeah, okay, whatever." And then they turn out to be right. Ugh, this will just encourage their crazy theories. Frankly, I was rather hoping for Izzie to be imagining a scene with Denny. For example, the way she said "I believe he is still with me," there could have been a part not unlike the end of Cold Case episodes where after solving the case, Lily gazes off into the distance and 'sees' the victim smile and nod.

[Edit: OH! I *just* realized why this ending seemed so vaguely familiar - it's just like that X-Files episode, "Audrey Pauley." Where Monica is in a state of brain-death and she wakes up in some weird version of the hospital, along with two other guys, neither of whom are exactly sure where they are. Thank you to this story for jogging my memory!]

Speaking of which, we all know they're going to revive Meredith in the end, so let's not even pretend we're scared. I just don't understand why people think it's impossible to kill her off "because the show is called Grey's Anatomy." Yes, but despite her starring voiceover role, I never think of her specifically when I hear the title. I actually think of the big fat medical textbook called Grey's Anatomy, as this is a show about *a whole class of* interns learning things about medicine. Textbooks, incidentally, make me think of Cristina, so my mind always goes to her first whenever I hear this show mentioned.

Numb3rs: Was that a...was that a David-centric episode I just saw?? No way!

In fact, David and Don completely swapped their roles this week. The latter was blink and you'll miss him. What a nice change of pace! There was even a little bit of romance going on for David with one of the coroners, whom I have no idea if we've seen before, but I'm not going to argue because they were cute. I don't know what else to say...the mixed martial arts fighting was a boring angle; I hate storylines that take place in fighting rings. That's how they promoted this episode, you know. Not a word about David's past friendship with one of the suspects, just "SPECIAL GUEST STAR: Famous Muscley Fighting Dude You've Never Heard Of." That kind of promotion almost made me skip the episode and watch Law & Order instead. Only force of habit kept me on CBS. I would like to say more specific things about how wickedly attractive Agent Sinclair is (the only man I can think of who manages to be hot despite a total lack of hair on the head), or how much I love him getting all up in his friend's face, but...words escape me.

Also loved Colby's excessive gun-waving in this episode.

Which somehow, don't ask how, brings us 'round to Charlie and Amita. Yay for gratuitous make-out scenes! *snicker* I love how Charlie is like, the only man in the world who has to be prodded into initiating a trip to the bedroom. I am trying to think of potential naughty captions for pictures of her expression, including double meanings of "poker," but as I am not witty or clever, I have yet to come up with any complete sentences. Ah well. What would have made this scene a lot nicer would be if Charlie were wearing anything other than extremely unsexy matching striped pajamas. He looked about five years old. Didn't really fit with Amita's lacey camisole thing. And also, who puts on their pajamas before dinner? Especially if you're having dinner delivered? "Hi there, thanks, here's your money, don't mind what I'm wearing..."

On the other hand, this set them up for Alan to come in and interrupt, and Charlie's flat-eyed expression is so hilarious I cannot possibly do it justice by trying to describe it. My closest approximation is that he was thinking about how many ways there were to make an old man's death look like an accident.

The rest of Charlie's scenes in this episode, save for when I nearly broke a rib laughing when he drywalled the other professor's office door out of existence, weren't much to speak of because I hate poker. I don't know how to play, I don't want to know how to play. It's boring and I hate when it gets face time on this show. Okay, all caught up for the week, save SVU, which I might just combine with next week's episode in a double shot post.